COSTLY MISTAKES

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3524, 14 August 1926, Page 3

COSTLY MISTAKES

TOTALISATOR PROPRIETOR’S BANKRUPTCY.

Auckland, August 13.

An error in' recording 1 the investments on the race won by Joy Ride at the Avondale Jockey Club’s spring meeting last year cost Francis Sinclair Yates, totalisator proprietor, £IOOO, and was the chief cause of his bankruptcy. This he told his creditors this morning at the office of the Official Assignee, when Mr. G. N. Morris presided in the absence of Mr. W. S. Fisher.

Bankrupt’s schedule showed his total debts to be £2IBO, and after deducting estimated assets he placed his total deficiency at £842. His statement set out that in 1920 he was a partner in the firm of Hayr and Co., totalisator proprietors, a fairly flourishing business, but later he bought his partner out. In 1920 he purchased a farm of 305 f&res during the boom period at £2O an acre, but he realised afterwards that he had paid too much, and not being able to make a success of farming and being unable to meet certain payments, he walked off the farm at the end of May. Another very costly mistake was made at the spring meeting of the Avondale Jockey Club last year. The amount invested on Joy Ride in commission book was £386, but in recording the amount on the totalisator the figures read as £3B, and only this amount of “Commission” money against Joy Ride was recorded. The result was that vdien the dividend was declared- it was larger than it actually should have been. Next day the error was discovered. He then had to pay the dividend 300 times out of his own pocket. This and the loss of the autumn meeting of the Avondale Club, which was held at Ellerslie, settled any chance he had of paying all his creditors. All - . Morris: Did you lose any money betting?

Bankrupt: I never did much betting.

Mr. Leahy (for a creditor): How much money would pass through your hands in a year? Bankrupt: About £300,000. And you did not keep your books in a safe —“No, I had no safe.” And your books were twelve months in arrears? —“No, six months.” How much did you lose in a gambling place in the city “I don’t think I lost anything.” I put it to you that you lost a considerable sum of money? —“No I did not.”' Before your loss on the totalisator at Avondale, how much did you lose in this certain gambling place? —“Perhaps £200.” Is that true? —“I think so.” Were you not a frequent visitor to this place, both day and night “No.” I want you to be certain, as you are a well-known .man about the town. Were you not gambling there night and day?—“Only for about a fortnight. Now isn’t this the position, that your bankruptcy is due to a large amount of money you lost gambling?—“No.” Bankrupt was examined at length regarding a payment of £2OO made to the Whangarei Racing Club. Creditors took exception to the club being treated as a preferential creditor. Bankrupt explained that his books had been destroyed by fire at the City Chambers. Mr. Morris said that he felt there were some things which bankrupt should explain more fully. Bankrupt said that the net profit on his totalisator business for five meetings would be in the vicinity of £BOO. He had not called his creditors together at any time and placed his position before them. The reason was that the totalisator business was a profitable one, but after the error at Avondale, which cost him £I6OO, and then the holding of the autumn meeting at Ellerslie, he found he could not pull himself out of the hole.

In answer to Mr. Morris, bankrupt said that there was actually no equity in the farm or house at Remuera.

A resolution instructing the Official Assignee to obtain the opinion of the Crown Solicitor as to whether payments made to creditors, after the sale of stock, and also to the Whangarei Racing Club, were preferential, was put to the meeting and carried, the creditors agreeing to bear the cost.